According to the Agnus Corporation who run St. Louis Park Transportation, the bus routes have gotten worse ever since construction began this summer. Construction season commenced in May and since then, construction crews tore up multiple roads throughout the city.

According to St. Louis Park City Hall Engineering Director Deb Heiser, construction in Park continued into the school season and caused many school bus re-routings. Heiser said St. Louis Park Transportation constantly makes compromises with students’ bus stops.

Freshman Dahlia Krebs said she noticed a lot about new construction in residential areas, which affected her bus arrival times.

“My bus goes through (the residential area) and it’s really bumpy all the time so the bus driver has to go slow,” Krebs said.

Bus company employee Levi Lehman said Park drivers now plan in advance in order to get to their destination on time.

“It is just a matter of trying to know what’s the best way,” Lehman said. “All the drivers know the streets that have construction.”

Heiser said the city first looks at what is underneath the road and the condition of the road. Based on this, she said, they judge which roads need construction.

“Construction is driven by the conditions of roads,” said Heiser. “(For example), near the (Park) staduim, we replaced the water main which was a hundred years old.”

According to Heiser, City Hall received multiple complaints from families of students about the construction due to their inability to get a bus stop near them.

“We do get complaints,” Heiser said. “We try to see if there is anything we can do to accommodate (our constituents).”

Particularly early in the school year, Krebs said she had to wait additional time for her bus and it caused unneeded stress.

“On the first few days it was later then it is now so on those days it did cause stress,” Krebs said.

Heiser said many roads’ conditions warranted remodeling.

“I believe (the construction) is worth it,” Heiser said. “Construction takes about six to eight weeks to finish, (but) it lasts thirty years.”
According to Heiser, construction is scheduled to finish early November, 2017.